WELCOME

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LOUGHBOROUGH STUDENTS FC V WISBECH TOWN

REBECCA SAWIUK

Hello and welcome to the Loughborough University stadium for our first home league game of the season! It was fantastic to see all of the fans in the stadium for my first competitive men’s game last weekend and what a fantastic result. Well done to all of the players and staff on the 5-1 win against Newark in the FA Cup preliminary round. I am looking forward to the next round.

It’s fantastic to have all of the fans with us as we embark on the start of our season in our home stadium. The grounds staff have done an excellent job throughout the summer to ensure the grass stadium pitch is looking beautiful. I know we are all hoping for a big performance and result today against a very good Wisbech team. I would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge all of the excellent support Loughborough men’s football programme has behind the scenes. It has been a real pleasure to meet Alan Goodley, Gordon Watson and Shirley Horner in recent weeks who are the real heartbeat of this club alongside Margaret. We are all very grateful for your continued support. We have also welcomed Jake Nelson to our men’s football workforce as the team’s operation assistant, Jake will work alongside our very own Harriet Simes. We are all passionate about the development of our students and staff here at Loughborough, within the football programme and for this season Jamie has some fantastic individuals. I have had the pleasure of witnessing just how well Sim James, Nathan Redmond, Tom Iaciofano and Ethan Williams have all settled into Jamie’s backroom staff team. I look forward to watching you all grown and develop over the course of the season. The women’s Loughborough Lightning team are preparing for their first home game of the season where they will play Stoke City Women here at the Loughborough stadium on August the 21st, 4pm KO, in a special double header. Before the big kick off at 4pm we are hosting Barclays Women’s Super League sides West Ham Women V Liverpool Women at 1pm. Tickets are now available to purchase in our online ticket store. Make sure you do not miss it! And finally, I would like to extend a warm welcome to our opposition today, Wisbech Town, their players, staff and fans. I hope you all have an enjoyable day with us and I look forward to what will no doubt be an exciting game of football.

JAMIE CLAPHAM

Good afternoon and welcome back for our first home league game of the 2022/23 season here at Loughborough University Stadium. I’m delighted to welcome Wisbech Town management team, players, officials and supporters.

Todays game follows on from our recent FA Cup preliminary round win against Newark-Sherwood UTD. Newark started their season with 2 wins out of 2 in the league but a very good performance saw us win 5-1, and we can now look forward to an away tie at Carlton Athletic on the 20th August. The season at Loughborough University always brings lots of new faces to the performance and U21 development squads, as well as new volunteer support staff. I want to take this opportunity to welcome them all to the team for this season. It is very early in the season and you often get some surprise results as squads start to settle in for the long season campaign but with 2 wins from the first 3 league game at the start of the season todays opponents Wisbech sit joint top of the league with 6 points so we look forward to what I’m sure will be a tough game today. As always thank you for your continued support and enjoy the game!